F. H. Petford ran his own creative agency and was involved in writing projects for corporate clients and the London theatre world. A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to solving a Murder, the first of the Alma Timperley mysteries, was written following the success of three crime novels set in the Oxfordshire village of Great Tew at the end of the Great War. The supernatural elements in his work are inspired by his own experiences of the paranormal. He was signed to Hodder and Stoughton in 2025 and lives a quietly pagan life in Somerset.